Twitter Etiquette

With almost 40K tweets under my belt, I’ve realized that Twitter can be its own little microcosm of normal society. The problem is that Twitter is both a marketing tool and a social tool and to properly make your Twitter account work for your blog you have to mix both social interaction and marketing with a good balance, if not you look like either a spammer or a clueless tweeter.

You make your own rules, you find what works for you and what doesn’t, but there are some things that can be frowned on when utilizing Twitter. Twitter etiquette so-to-speak. There is nothing set-in-stone, but if you find yourself on the wrong side of Twitter etiquette you might also find that you’ll lose a good bit of followers.

Here are Eight Twitter Do’s & Don’ts

I always like to use the analogy of a party. Twitter is a big party and you are a guest. You are not the guest of honor, you are just 1 of hundreds or thousands. There are cliques, there are special groups and there are spammers circling the mix. But, you can have fun at this party, a lot of fun.

1. Don’t be an Egg Head

No matter what, change the default twitter avi. An egg screams spam. Use anything but an egg. This would be like showing up a party naked.

2. Don’t Auto-Tweet During Tragedies

Do you have scheduled or auto-tweets enabled in a twitter program? My brother kindly pointed out to me that I looked like an ass when a few auto-tweets came through right when the Boston Marathon news broke. I promptly went and turned them off. This type of tweet would be like yelling, “hey check out my post” in the midst of an assembly remembering a tragedy.

3. Don’t Ostracize Your Followers

I understand you have social or political beliefs, and I understand you might want to give your opinion on these social or political beliefs. There is nothing wrong with stating your opinion, just don’t insult people that believe or act the other way. Your followers are most likely varied in beliefs and backgrounds, tweeting out insulting statements is never a good idea. I remember someone I followed tweeted out something like, “Anyone that let’s the water run while brushing their teeth should be taken out and beaten.”

Now, I’m one to make sure I don’t waste water, but everyone has their down-time. I don’t want to be beaten. So I unfollowed this particular tweeter. They might have had a bad teeth-brushing moment…but it made me feel uncomfortable. Would you yell out that you hate a particular type of person at a party? When that “type” of person might be in attendance?

4. Don’t Engage with a Link

The point is to socialize first, promote later. First you have to establish that you are not just there to market, you are there to cement a community and then feed cool links into the mix. If you haven’t had any interaction with a certain twitter user, don’t just tweet them a link. No matter how much you want to sell your book to them. Even if they are following you. First contact should not be a “Hey buy my book, it is .99¢” Would you walk up to someone at a party and just hand them an advertisement? You might as well be standing on the corner handing out flyers.

5. Don’t Take It Personally

If someone doesn’t follow you, don’t take it personally. They may not even realize it. Just engage them in conversation, ask them a question. The more you chat them up the more likely they will realize they don’t follow you back. Don’t tweet them “Why aren’t you following me?” Unless of course you know them really well and think it is an appropriate response. On another note, if you try to tweet someone and realize they are blocking you…obviously they have issues with something you’ve done or said, or maybe how you’ve interacted with them. Again don’t take it personally and go on the attack. If you value that friendship, maybe send them an email with an apology. I wouldn’t demand any answers though, or try to tweet them through other accounts. That just screams stalker. Would you chase someone around a party demanding answers as to why they haven’t returned your phone call?

6. Don’t DM Promo Stuff

Don’t even think about DMing anyone about your latest giveaway, the fact that your book is now .99¢ or even that you’ll be hosting a fabulous new feature and could they please participate. Spam is still spam, even privately. Would you walk up to someone at a party and whisper in their ear “buy my book”?

7. Don’t Forget It’s Still Social

Twitter is a Social program. Be social. But, engage like you are attending a party. Would you walk into a party and declare that — “Hey, I just woke up and life sucks!” And then continue to just make inappropriate statements…you’ll be the person in the corner talking to yourself and everyone rolling their eyes.

8. Don’t’ Be Annoying

I read this article via MediaBistro that mention “The 10 Most Irritating Social Media Status Updates” I thought it was hilarious because everyone does it. It looks like it is mostly targeting Facebook and some things are a little out there…really 36% of people think boasting about your child is annoying? It just goes to show you that people annoy people no matter what you do. What I did get out of the article is very critical though. Share what you think your followers want to know about…don’t harass your followers with just a monotony of lame updates that no one cares about. Don’t be that person at the party that keeps repeating themselves over and over again, “I like books, I like books, did I mention? I like books…!”

Book Blogger News

Ender’s Game Trailer
The first movie trailer for Ender’s Game was released on the 7th of May. View it here. There has been some grumpiness about Ben Kingsley’s facial tats, but I kind of think it’s stern and imposing. Grr grr…movie sensationalism at it’s finest. What did we expect?

BFYA Nominations are in!
ALA published their nominations for BEST FICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS. Congrats to a lot of books I have no idea about, but also to Ilsa J Bick, Gail Carriger, Robin LaFevers, Marie Lu, Tahereh Mafi and many more who so deserve these nominations and I actually have read… 😀 See the whole list here.

Tip of My Tongue
There is now a TIP OF MY TONGUE page on Reddit where you can find that book that you can’t quite remember…supposedly there are thousands of readers just waiting to NAME THAT BOOK! Considering there are a few other forums that do this same thing and a little thing called Twitter, this might be a little redundant. BTW, I read this book, it was science fiction. It was about a boy/girl that every year they switched sex. They were picked up by a space ship and then they came back another sex, so they lived their childhood as both a boy and a girl, until at their coming of age they are allowed to choose, Girl, Boy or Both. Right?? I can’t remember for the life of me the name of this book…and it was so bizarre I would love to reread it and review it here on the blog. Anyone know what book I’m talking about?

Question of the week:

I haven’t got many books to review from publishers yet but I was wondering how you’re supposed to contact the publisher the next time? Do you write request through publicity email or do you write to the person you got an answer the last time? Thanks 🙂 – Anon

I would use the person that answered you the last time. They are probably the ones that handle requests, so putting them as your contact from now on is a good way to move forward. If you doubt that they are the one, email them and just ask.

Happy Thursday. Talk Less. Read More. Blog with Integrity.

Have a question? Fill out the form by clicking here. This will go into a spreadsheet to be looked over at a later date and hopefully answered on this blog. This is completely anonymous, you do not have to leave your real name. Urls will not be included in your question unless it pertains to the question.

About The Author

Rachel, whom you might know as Parajunkee, is the blog owner of parajunkee.com and the design blog parajunkee.net. To make matters even more confusing she is now a published author under the pen name of Gillian Zane. Rachel has been blogging for over eight years, designing / web programming for over fifteen, but her real love, reading, has been her favorite hobby since childhood. Rachel has won numerous awards for her writing, the blogs she has created and her design work. If you want to check out more about her books click "The Books" on the navigation bar at the top of the page.

19 Comments

Twitter still makes me nervous sometimes and I am sure I am not doing it right. I have to say that I have learned a lot over the last couple months thanks to you and a handful of others taking me under wing. Great to see this because sometimes I wonder, but maybe I am doing okay after all.

As a rule I don’t auto follow peeps back on Twitter. But once I’ve talked with someone on a regular base and I notice I’m not following them I will.

No one likes spammers. You have to beware of the non-egg head spammers too. If you tweet me just a link, you’re probably a spammer and I will check out your tweet feed. If that’s all you’re doing I’ll clock and report you as a spammer.

As for taking things personal….if you are rude to me I will unfollow you. Just that simple. Like you said, if I was at a party I would just walk away so that’s what I do online. We’re all adults, let’s act like it.

As always another great tip post. You are a fountain of knowledge and common sense. That’s why I continue to follow and love you. LOL

I do not like direct marketing via Twitter. I have a hard enough time clicking the link to promote my own posts. I do them directly from the blog so I don’t have to actually see them hit the timeline. So of course I hate being approached publicly on twitter to review or buy something or donate something for a giveaway. It’s an awkward situation and one I feel is better addressed through email.

Every time I get involved in a conversation on Twitter I just imagine all my followers running for the hills. But I figure, hey, I don’t want to be a total anti-social recluse so if they don’t like my occasional chatting they can unfollow.

And oh my gosh I totally am with you about personal beliefs of any sort. We all have our beliefs, but IMO everyone has a right to their own and I hate being made to feel that I’m a bad person for having my particular viewpoints on any number of things. I have unfollowed one particular hugely successful author for only espousing their political views on their timeline and never talking books.

I also really hope no one takes it personally when I don’t follow. Half the time I assume I am following people I talk to. And I so rarely get the chance to look through my timeline to see who’s following me that I’d like to follow back. I think I figure people will interact and then I’ll at some point to remember to click the button.

Of course a big peeve is the follow/unfollow/re-follow/unfollow/re-follow etc. so that they’ll keep appearing at the top of the list of followers. I hadn’t followed back someone at one point because their profile description was a bit off and then noticed them at the top of my list again. It turns out they did this 20 times in the course of a month. At that point I was a little creeped out. Over the course of a year they did this close to 40 times.

Great advice. I went by instinct when I first started out on Twitter, but my real issue was how to step out of my shyness and engage. Then I never knew when the conversation was over. It’s weird having the final say when it comes to this type of back and forth.

Another great post with awesome info. I’ve found #3 more on Facebook, but I guess it’s more of a “personal” profile and not someone trying to promote a blog, book or business.

melissaseclecticbookshelf
on May 9, 2013 at 16:10

Great points…number 4 is one of my biggest pet peeves…

Kim
on May 9, 2013 at 15:21

Great points! It does bother me when someone automatically sends me a DM because I followed them about their books or services they provide and links to how I can sign up for them. I know you can use twitter as a promo tool, but that’s just annoying. It’s like “Hi, I just met you, but go buy this from me anyway” — not a great first impression.

ALA picked some really great books! Except for one or two that I just don’t understand how they thought those were worth the read … but to each their own. I’m so glad to see Cat Winter’s book on there along with Ilsa Bick, Gayle Forman, Brenna Yovanoff, and Laini Taylor!

Right on the money, as usual, Rachel! Egg profile pics kill me, and so do the auto-tweets. Worse? Right during the Sandy Hook shootings last year, when most of us were in shock, I saw several authors LIVE tweeting promo tweets. It made me so angry!

Ha. I love this. I am SOOOOOO with you the political beliefs thing. That’s a breaker for me. If someone I love tweets political stuff, I stop following. I just can’t hack it. It’s nothing personal but I move on. Great post.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.